I’m going to root for my Barves as long as they’re still playing. Nothing will stop that. Not silly unwritten rules enforcement, not dumb “choptober” hashtags on Twitter, nothing. They’re my team and you root for your team until they’re eliminated. That’s how sports works. Even when they annoy you, they’re your guys.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t transfer allegiances if and when they’re eliminated. Or, if your team didn’t make the playoffs, that you can’t pick a playoff rooting interest. I do this every year to some degree. Indeed, being a Braves fan, changing one’s rooting interests in the middle of the playoffs has become something of a necessity over the years.

This is subject to change depending on what annoying playoff habits/chants/rituals any of these guys get into and drive me crazy, but for the moment my secondary rooting interests break down like this:

National League:

1. Dodgers: I love Kershaw and Greinke. I’m a slave to Puig-mania. I’ve come to respect what Don Mattingly has done this year. I also want Boston people who are convinced that Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford are poison to have to explain how they can play on a World Series winning team. Lots of fun to be had here.

2. Pirates: Good story, Andrew McCutchen is a God. Pittsburgh deserves something to cheer for. My only reservation is that this bandwagon is going to be overflowing if the Pirates advance and I don’t want to be in that crowd.

3. Reds: Pattern here: I tend to like teams whose best player has skills I love to see. Joey Votto has the best batting eye in baseball and while a team full of guys like him make for long, boring games, I like to see him ply his trade. Plus: viva Ohio.

4. Cardinals: Eh, just not gonna happen. I don’t hate them. I don’t think there are any bad guys on this club. I just don’t like watching them for some reason. Maybe it’s a Buck/McCarver thing and the way their commentary gets when the Cardinals are involved. Maybe it’s the Best Fans in Baseball thing. But no, I can’t see myself cheering for the Cardinals at least until the World Series (I’m an NL guy) and maybe not even then.

American League:

1. Athletics: This is basically the “Major League” team here. Their owner is trying to move them and they play in a ballpark that is literally full of crap. I also want to see Bartolo Colon raise the AL Championship trophy while sucking on a BBQ rib bone or something. Plus: I’m covering the World Series again this year and I’d like to return to the Bay Area without being near death’s door due to that plague or whatever it was I had last year in San Francisco.

2. Tigers: Nostalgia. It will make my girlfriend happy and if my girlfriend is happy I’m happy. I’m not anything approaching a Tigers fan anymore, but I’ve met a lot in the past few years and I like them. Plus I know the fun places to go in Detroit now. Shut up, there are fun places in Detroit.

3. Indians: More viva Ohio. More comeuppance for the Boston scribes who thought Terry Francona was a problem (or who let the front office tell that story for a while without pushback). Chief Wahoo makes it hard, but I’ll get over it.

4. Rays: There is still some underdog appeal here and I’m a sucker for good starting pitching, but I feel like Joe Maddon’s Phil Jackson impression has worn thin and I really can’t root for a team that features a rapist, an anti-semite and a homophobe.

5. Red Sox: Eh, it’s been a nice turnaround and there are some likable players here, but non-Sox fans rooting for them is almost as bad as non-Yankees fans rooting for New York. They’re the classic overdog. Plus, they tend to play games that last until 1AM and I just can’t do that every October. The one saving grace is that I’ve never been to Fenway and now I possibly could. But I could also just fly there next summer if I want and not have to endure Sox October baseball.

So that’s how it breaks down for me. Lots of appealing options and a potential Red Sox-Cardinals series that may drive me back into being a football fan.

What’s your view on all of this? If your team tanks or has already been eliminated, who ya got?

I just root for the Rangers to fail in every way and if they make the post season will be on edge until they are eliminated. Just like every year when they make the post season. Thank you Cardinals and Giants!

Once you team is eliminated all you can do is look towards next year, so I root for players to establish themselves for next year. I like seeing some of the young talent play to get a feel for how they’d do.

Not that anyone really cares, but as a Red Sox fan, my top four rooting interests in the INSANELY unlikely scenario that Boston doesn’t go completely undefeated en route to another World Series victory: Pirates, Athletics, Indians, Rays.

I don’t so much root for a team, as against a team(s). I will root for whatever team is playing the Red Sox (grew up in NY and lived in Boston when the ‘pink hat brigade’ was at its most obnoxious) and the Cardinals. Like you, Craig, I don’t have a quantifiable reason for my Cardinals dislike (I’ve been to Busch a couple of times – a GREAT place to see a ballgame), but I just don’t like them. If I had to choose a team to actively root for, it would be the Dodgers, what with Donnie Baseball and the success of Red Sox cast-offs.

I think my team was out of the playoffs in July. Watched and rooted for them every game so far, and will keep doing so for the couple of games. But when it is over, you’ll are on your own. I am a fan of my team first and MLB second. Good luck to the teams in the playoffs, but I will be back in the spring.

Probably not a popular point, but just the way I feel. I have tried in past years to get into it (w/o my team in), but I find I only get juiced when both teams stumble. Fishing is starting to get good now anyhow.

I’m a Yankee fan, so this is a little weird, but I really enjoy the low-payroll super-genius teams. So for me, it’s A’s #1, Pirates #2, Rays #3, with the Rays being third because of the unlikeable players and being in the same division as the Yanks.

It’s not the same, or even near it, when your team isn’t in it, but failing that, I’m all for teams that have never won or haven’t won in a long time. So a Pirates v. Rays/Indians WS is something I root for.

Pirates (underdog)
A’s (Moneyball, lots of former Red Sox players, underdog, green-and-gold)
Indians (Francona)
Dodgers (former Sox players, plus I liked them for some reason when I was a kid.)
Reds (Joey Votto. They seem to be doing good things.)
Tigers (neutral on these guys)
Braves (ditto)
Rays (I like Joe Maddon, but I am getting tired of his schtick and occasional passive-aggressive rants. The underdog thing has passed.)
Cardinals (They win often enough.)

Dodgers–My dad’s team, first team to integrate, Vin Scully, Puig, and Kershaw. It’s a no-brainer.

Pirates–Long suffering fanbase and the ones I have met personally are just the sweetest people. Plus Cutch. If it wasn’t for the Dodgers, Pirates all the way.

The other NL teams, eh, except for the Braves. I am actively rooting against them. Sorry, Calcaterra. You’re my boy, but I don’t like your team. Their logo, the stupid mindless tomahawk chop and now, they’re self-appointed Team America: Baseball Police. I want them gone.

AL:
A’s–I’m a sucker for low budget teams by a bay in lousy stadiums. They’re the Rays’ mirror team.

Tigers–Also a long suffering fanbase and Detroit is such a depressed city.

This year it will be the Pirates, which was actually the first team I followed (through the ’70s), as the ’71 Series was the first I saw and Willie Stargell became my childhood idol. I will root but not count myself as a (bandwagon) fan.

AL – As an Angel fan, anybody but the Sox (who I did root for in ’75, but not in ’86).